To study the response of cabbage butterfly, Pieris brassicae on cabbage, cauliflower, yellow sarson, gobhi sarson and Indian mustard, various life tables i.e., age specific and stage specific life tables have been constructed in controlled conditions (25±1°C, 65±5% R.H. and 12 h L:12 h D). The age specific life-table revealed that P. brassicae required maximum period of 42 days on Indian mustard and minimum 36 days on cabbage to complete the generation. The survivorship decreased gradually from an initial stage of development till culmination of the generation on each host plant. However, mortality showed a significant variation at different development stages of P. brassicae on each host plant. The apparent mortality and mortality survival ratio was found highest at pupal stage (15.91 and 0.19%) on Indian mustard and lowest at pre-pupal stage (3.39 and 0.04%) on cabbage. Similarly, maximum k-value (0.0753) was recorded at pupal stage on Indian mustard and minimum (0.0150) at pre-pupal stage on cabbage. On the other hand, survival fraction was recorded highest (0.97) at pre-pupal stage on cabbage and lowest (0.84) at pupal stage on Indian mustard. The life-table parameters revealed that cabbage is the most preferred food of P. brassicae than other cole crops.
This study was aimed for removal of phenol from water using activated carbon synthesize from avocado kernel seeds by adsorption onto it. For adsorption process cleaned and washed avocado kernel seeds (Persea americana) were dried at 100°C in an oven overnight and carbonization was carried out by increasing the furnace temperature at a rate of 5 °C/min to a final temperature of 800 °C for 160 minutes. Then, the activated carbon was powdered and sieved, washed with distilled water until the solution pH reached 7.0. Optimization of activated carbon was performed through effects of solution pH, contact time; initial phenol concentration and temperature of the adsorption. The kinetic studies of the adsorption process were achieved by verifying various models and the data obtained was best fitted to pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The isotherms models were analyzed with Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin to validate the adsorption process. It was found that Langmuir model was best fitted to the obtained result for both adsorbents.
The characterization of phosphorous (P) from animal manure is important for sustainable nutrient management. P fractions in fresh and composted animal manure was compared for the release of phosphorous fraction to determine heavy metals (Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, and Hg). Composted and fresh animal manure were collected from four different sources: buffalo (BF), cow (CW), goat (GT), and poultry (PL). The P fraction was determined by using the Hadley sequential fractionation method. The P was step-wise fractionated into water-soluble extracted P (H₂O-P), plant available (NaHCO₃-P), Al associated (NaOH-P), and Ca associated (HCl-P). The overall P fractions extracted by reagents varied in the order HCl > NaOH > NaHCO₃ > H₂O. The metal concentration varied as follows: Fe > Hg > Mn > Zn > Ni. The highest P content was found in composted PL manure whereas the minimum was observed in fresh PL. Consequently, the composed animal manure could be an economical P source to be used as fertilizer.
Air pollution in Pakistan is causing damage to health, environment and quality of life. Air pollution in Pakistan is not effectively monitored due to heavy cost involved in setting up ground stations. However, Satellite remote sensing can effectively monitor the air pollution in terms of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at regional as well as global level. However, algorithms used to derive AOD from different sensors have some inherited differences which can pose challenges in monitoring regional AOD at high temporal resolution using more than one sensor. Therefore, this study focuses on comparison of four major satellite based AOD products namely Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS), Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), Ozone Monitoring Instrument multiwavelength (OMI) aerosol product and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) with the ground based AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) AOD which is only available from Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan. The correlation of various AOD products with AERONET AOD is estimated statistically through coefficient of determination (R²), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), slope and intercept. It is noticed that MODIS is relatively accurate and reliable for monitoring air quality on operational bases over the land cover area of Lahore (R² = 0.78; RMSE = 0.18), whereas MISR over the coastal areas of Karachi (R² = 0.82; RMSE = 0.20). The results of the study will help the stakeholders in planning additional ground stations for operational monitoring of air quality at regional level.
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